Vargas Rematch Heating Up For Team Mosley

Shane Mosley’s trainer/father Jack meets the press

In anticipation of the super rematch between Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas on July 15, Jack Mosley, Shane’s trainer/father, spoke with the boxing press via telephone conference call on June 28. This is what he said.

Jack Mosley: When Shane came up, he had speed. I called it speed boxing. Speed and power. That’s what it is.

Jack Mosley: We don’t go in looking for a knockout. If it comes, it comes. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. We will outbox him, outpoint him and out-power him in every category. It will be a different fight altogether.

Jack Mosley: I started Shane out when he was eight years old and my methods will be the same. They are winning methods. He has won national tournaments and titles. Shane, they always say, is a three-time world champion. He is a five time world champion. He won two titles off Oscar each time he fought Oscar, the WBC and the IBA then the WBC and the WBA. He also won the IBF. So he’s a five-time world champion in three different weight classes. I want to make that clear because he is not getting his just do. I just think he needs credit for that accomplishment.

Jack Mosley: My training methods Danny has seen some of them but not everything. He has been up in camp with Ishay, but I have some other things I have implemented that is going to make a difference in this fight coming up with Vargas.

So there will be some changes?

Jack Mosley: It will be the same it is just some things that have been added. I am just adding, not changing stuff. I am making sure Shane can do what Shane can do best. He has the capabilities to do what he has done in the past. Some people say, He is 34 years old. Shane is still confident and strong and can still do some things out there and I am bringing it all out again.

Do you think there will be pressure on you since he won the first fight?

Jack Mosley: Well, you know what, Shane is going to win the fight. There is no question about it. I am not thinking about what people are going to say what they say and I know what I’ve got in Shane. Like I said, he is a five-time world champion in three different weight classes and I was a part of that. Shane and I did that together. I don’t care what they think. I already know what I did, I started Shane from scratch. How many trainers can say they started a fighter from scratch and gotten those accomplishments? Not too many, I say. There are some, but not too many. So I don’t care what they say. I already know what I did. And I don’t need anybody to tell me. And I don’t need any praise from anyone either. I already know what I did in my own head.

When you got together with Shane to come back, did you discuss parameters?

Jack Mosley: There was nothing to talk about. He asked me if I would train him and I said Fine.

Did he say why he wanted you to train him again?

Jack Mosley: John is training Bernard Hopkins, so what better person to have than the one who started him out?

One thing we noticed was that Shane was not throwing the combinations. Did you notice that?

Jack Mosley: Yeah, yeah. I know the reason why he did it and how it happened, too. All of the things that have caused it to happen, we have eliminated.

Can you tell us what?

Jack Mosley: I don’t want to say what it was. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.

Is there a different feeling when you are in the corner with your son than anyone else?

Jack Mosley: My son is my son more than anything else. I try to do the same thing with all of my fighters preparation for fights, taking care of them physically, mentally and I just try to do what I can and treat them as a human being to make sure they are the best they can be while they are out there. I don’t just throw my fighters to the wolves, if I can prevent that, I don’t care who the fighter is. I try to give him a better than 50% chance to win a fight. That’s how I train my fighters.

Did you always want Shane to be a boxer?

Jack Mosley: That was Shane’s idea, to box. Dad, I want to box, I can do this. I had him in karate and things like that. He was good a karate, too. But then the funds ran out and I was at the gym training and trying to lose weight and he would tag along and I brought him with me because I had to keep an eye on him and he wanted to box. And he wanted to be a world champion and he loved it with a passion and that’s what you’ve got to do. Love it with a passion and work with a passion and that’s what I told him.

What did you tell him when he went in a different direction?

Jack Mosley: Sometimes in life people need to do things on their own and stuff. Like when he wanted to play basketball and he wanted to play football and I said go ahead, it’s good for your boxing. You want to make changes and see what you can do and what you can’t do and that’s kind of what it was besides other things. But the bottom line is he is here and we are going to do it again. We are going to work hard and kick some but out there and make history.

In looking at the Mayweathers. Could you ever imagine training a fighter to fight your son?

Jack Mosley: I wouldn’t do it. I absolutely would not do it. I don’t love money that bad. I would never train somebody to beat my blood up. Because after the fight you still have to fellowship with your some and things like that it’s your family. You can’t have a problem like that at Christmas and other holidays that’s crazy, that’s your family. I would never do that.

Could you define power boxing?

Jack Mosley: Instead of calling it boxer-puncher I just combined the two and decided to call it power boxing. We’ll just box the guy with power and speed. There is still speed there but it is power boxing. And you are boxing with power that is basically what it is.

In this fight are you going to concentrate on hitting Vargas in the eye?

Jack Mosley: We are going to concentrate on hitting Vargas everywhere we can hit him. Wherever he lets us hit him, we are going to hit him. If he wants us to hit him in the eye again, we’ll hit him in the eye again. If he wants us to hit him in the body we’ll hit him in the body. There is going to be a spot to hit him. If he blocks the eye, there will be someplace else to hit him, that’s all.

Did you ever stop by the gym as an observer while Shane was being trained by others?

Jack Mosley: No, I was busy training my other fighters.

Do you see things you can implement that you couldn’t when he was younger?

Jack Mosley: I think Shane can do all of the things he could do when he was a younger fighter. He is older, but he’s not an abused fighter. He’s not a fighter that’s been hanging out all night long or every weekend. He takes care of himself. He’s a t the gym, he’s a work-a-holic, he eats good food and takes his vitamins. He’s just not one of those guys that is going to be hanging out. He can do those things he did when he was in his 20’s. I am watching him right now and I know he can do them because he is doing them right now. It is just muscle memory and he is doing those things again.

How difficult was it to stay away from the gym?

Jack Mosley: When Shane was an amateur and had to go to Colorado Springs, they had coaches there that would take him to different places. I wasn’t there, but I knew he knew his craft very well to handle himself with anybody in the corner. Because he is already trained. He knows what to do. What are they going to show him. He’s already won three national titles. All they can say is Shane, be more busy or jab a little more’ but he already knows how to do everything while he was traveling around the United States with the Olympic team. He already knew what to do.

What about Shane’s style against Vargas?

Jack Mosley: It’s just that he got away from it. So he’s getting back to it. Shane is just as good if not better.

There was talk about your training following the first Forrest fight

Jack Mosley: I already knew what Shane could do he just couldn’t do it. There were some other things happening in his life, so he couldn’t do it and I already knew that. People may have known that but it wasn’t their business. Against Vernon there were a lot of distractions, but what are you going to do? When the chemistry is thrown out of whack when you have a good chemistry that is working for you, it messes up everything. That happens to the best of us. I thought he won the rematch against Vernon Forrest and I thought he won the rematch against Winky Wright even though I wasn’t there I thought he beat Winky Wright. I think right now, the track he is on, he can really do some stuff without those kinds of distractions right now.

Do you have a theory on why father-son combinations don’t work?

Jack Mosley: I think a lot of times the fathers do not allow their sons to grow and they want to live their life through their son. Then you have outside influences  you have people in the fighter’s ear and the father’s ear trying to manage things and manipulate. People that are envious and jealous and they want to break that up. People that are around the camp that don’t want to see it work. But it’s there and there are people that don’t want to see it work. Number one, it is the money they want the money. I had to save all of my money. I had to save all of my time at my job  vacation time and sick time and they wouldn’t let me off of work, so that’s why I had to save all of my sick time. It’s like thirteen days that you had to stay every year and that was my vacation every year. Because I am trying to support my son to be the best he can be. People see that and they don’t like it. They are just jealous of it. But then you have fathers who want to live their lives, not all but some, and that is a reason why it doesn’t work. Even people in your family get jealous they don’t want it to work.

There are a lot of reason why the father-son combinations to not work. They tried it with the Williams sisters and their father, but they were strong enough to stay together. They had a strong bond and didn’t allow anyone to come between them.

There is a lot of money there. There are agents and people that want to manage – it’s all about the money and everybody knows that. They even try to make up a story saying he can’t do the job. But they weren’t there in the beginning. When they are amateurs and go to Colorado Springs and win the title and come back who’s waiting? The guys with the millions of dollars and they didn’t train them. What about the guys that train the fighters from scratch. He took four years out of his life to train the kid and he gets nothing. That is sad.